“All at-risk youth in RI will have the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and experience to lead safe and stable lives and to progress along career or educational pathways so they can secure gainful and meaningful employment and thrive over time.”

View RI's Shared Vision for Youth Pilot Expansion and Replication from Sept. 2009 Retreat presentation (pdf)

Visit the Regional Youth Forum from the US Dept. of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

The Rhode Island Pilot

A 2003 White House Task Force Report on Disadvantaged Youth noted that despite billions of Federal, state, local and private dollars spent on needy youth and their families, many out-of-school, at-risk youth have been and continue to be left behind in our economy because of a lack of program focus and emphasis on outcomes.

In response to the White House Report a partnership between the U.S. Departments of Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Health and Human Services, Justice, Transportation and Labor; the U.S. Social Security Administration; and the Corporation for National and Community Service was developed to create a collaborative approach at the national, state, and local levels to serve our nation’s neediest youth in order to develop innovate approaches, enhance the quality of services delivered, improve efficiencies, and improve the outcomes for youth we serve.  The partnership, entitled the Shared Youth Vision Federal Collaborative Partnership (SYVFCP), has as its main goal to improve outcomes for the neediest youth, particularly youth in foster care, youth ageing out of foster care, youth connected to juvenile justice, youth with disabilities, pregnant and parenting youth and out of school youth. 

In November 2004 Rhode Island participated in SYVFCP’s first Shared Youth Vision Forum and in September 2006 was selected to participate in their Advanced Shared Youth Vision Initiative.  Rhode Island was selected as one of sixteen states to serve as a catalyst in the 2007 implementation of SYVFCP’s shared youth vision and the RI Department of Labor and Training was the recipient of the grant award.  Rhode Island, and its Shared Youth Vision Partners, was charged with conducting a pilot project to demonstrate the effectiveness of state-level partnerships and programmatic outcomes and, develop an overall technical assistance plan so that the collaborative vision may be infused throughout the country.  Members of the Rhode Island Shared Youth Vision Team included the Department of Children Youth and Families, the Department of Education (Adult Education, Special Populations and Middle and High School divisions), the Economic Development Corporation, the Governor’s Workforce Board, the Office of Rehabilitation Services, the Department of Human Services, the State Workforce Investment Office, the two Local Workforce Investment Boards, the Justice Commission and the Department of Corrections.

The Rhode Island Shared Youth Vision Team worked towards developing an integrated system to impact Rhode Island’s neediest youth which resulted in a collaborative case management system.  We worked to leverage resources and create a streamlined and integrated service delivery model that resulted in service strategies for the state’s highest risk youth.  Our goals included establishing state and local training protocols, developing a comprehensive risk assessment and testing the collaborative case management model through a pilot serving up to 50 highest risk youth.

Pilot Results

Based on the data analyzed to date, the pilot group of youth has higher average scores on all post measures than the control group.

• System Outcome (Increased access to services/interventions): Collaborative Case Management contributed to over 79% of the referrals offered to pilot youth.  The increase in referrals during case conferencing sessions represents the impact that a group setting can have on case planning. 
• Youth Outcome (Improvement in daily living skills/stability):  Youth in the Pilot group tend to be more engaged than youth in the control group when their pre- and post-assessments of engagement were compared.  The data further suggest that the engagement area is the area where the pilot has had the greatest impact on youth.
• Case Manager Outcome (Access to State Team members):  All case managers report that the collaborative case management process has helped them better understand the youth services delivery system and policies that affect their work with youth.  Specifically, they have all benefited from access they have to experts/ leaders in the field that can help them resolve issues when they arise.  Case Managers also note that this increased knowledge and access is magnified when they share information within their smaller network of practitioners in the field.

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RI Department of Labor and Training
Rhode Island State Workforce Investment Office
Center General Complex
1511 Pontiac Avenue, PO Box 20157, Cranston, RI 02920-0942
Phone: (401) 462-8780 | Fax: (401) 462-8787